Lost Artifacts and Practices: Agendas, Writing, and Reading Aloud

Have you ever been to Egypt? What about the Mayan Temples? No, well, neither have I. But I would definitely want to experience those places someday. Something that I would be interested in seeing is the historical artifacts, and learning about the ancient practices. The former ways of doing life were replaced with modern technology and a more efficient way of doing things. But I am also noticing how some things and exercises are becoming antiquated as well. Like ringing the doorbell to show you are here, and leaving voice messages if a person doesn’t answer. Gone are such activities. It's even happening in the school systems. Lockers, textbooks, and transparencies are either gone or not in use. I am an advocate for making education more up-to-date and efficient. But we need to pause and examine what efficiency is. What is the standard for “up-to-date”? I believe we have sacrificed not just education but overall life development for students for a cheap version of efficiency and a reckless, rushing modern technological culture, both of which are leaving many students ill-equipped for adulthood. That last statement sounds strong, but I have no intention of tiptoeing into this conversation. When it comes to the upcoming generations, we all need to be held accountable for how well we prepared them for the world.

In the efforts to have some intentional efficiency, I suggest we bring back these three things: agendas, writing, and reading aloud. What did agendas do for students? It served multiple purposes depending on the area you went to school in. An agenda for me had the following: code of conduct, interesting facts, multiplication chart, calendar, areas to write upcoming exams & assignments, and a hall pass. We were told to copy into our agenda every day, so our parents and we could be aware of tests, homework, etc. Some schools had an area for teachers to write notes that the parents could check daily and sign. The agenda helped promote accountability, communication, and planning. Students were held accountable for their work assignments and the upcoming tests. Teachers had a daily way to communicate with parents, and parents were made aware of what their child was learning. Parents also had to sign the agendas daily, and the teachers would check them. This was not a flawless system as we could have guessed. Agendas have gotten misplaced or damaged. Schools spent thousands of dollars for years on production. Students or parents could refuse to write in the agenda, but this, in turn, would hurt the student. I’ve noticed now that many of the assignments and updates are online for the parents and students to view. That is game-changing, but how has this increased the overall efficiency of the students? Are they more prepared for the project deadlines? The short answer is no. It needs to be a hybrid model that infuses both. Having students write down things such as test dates and due dates helps their memory. Studies have shown that when you write down something, such as dates and important events, your memory improves. In the same way that online banking didn’t make the masses more financially literate, Google Classroom didn't make students more efficient. And banks didn’t get rid of checkbooks; they still offer them. 

By 2015, Google dominated 53% of the U.S. K-12 education market

Communicating with parents has been a growing obstacle over the last decade. And again, the emails and portal messages are great, but they need to be checked consistently, just like agendas. Teachers were writing daily in everyone’s agendas, and I know that doesn’t sound awesome. But being in education, I have seen many times teachers having to exhaust all forms of communication in order to establish a connection with parents. I had to show my parents my agenda to get a signature. My mother was aware of what was happening in the classroom, which prompted conversations about what was happening in school. The pandemic showed us that many parents are not informed about what is going on in the schools academically. I think we underestimated the impact of a daily parental signature. At one time, students in certain counties were required to get their agendas signed daily, and the consequence for not getting it signed was that they lost recreational time and/or privileges. Now picture an elementary school student who didn’t get his or her agenda signed and loses time at recess. They now have something at stake. They have more of a reason to get it signed, making it their responsibility. The required parent signature puts skin in the game for parents. Parents should be checking daily, especially with elementary and middle schoolers, what is happening in the classroom. Emails are great, but a handwritten note in an agenda hits different. As a parent, imagine receiving a positive handwritten message about your student. The teacher took his/her time to write about your child and how well they are doing. That is where a special connection can be made. Agendas help establish parental and teacher connections and cultivate accountability amongst elementary and middle school students. For high schoolers, it was less about getting parents to sign and more about life development skills. Agendas help them plan and coordinate deadlines, and commit dates to memory. Getting into the habit of checking a calendar to see what is coming up. The phone serves this same purpose, but let's be realistic. They aren’t checking their calendars. Getting rid of agendas may have been an efficient financial move, but it hurt other areas of development.

Writing instruction and practice are declining in schools due to standardized testing, limited instructional time, and a shift toward digital technology.

Writing is slowly becoming a lost art, and I’m not talking about cursive. Plain print writing is becoming obsolete. Typing on computers for papers is necessary, but most assignments should not be posted solely on Google Classroom or Canva. Those are great tools, but overuse of them can be handicapping to a generation. My oldest son is in middle school, and math is one of his strongest subjects. But as he progressed through grades, he started struggling. The struggle is normal because the math becomes more rigorous over time. While assisting him, I asked where his class notes were. Most of the notes were online, and he had a few worksheets. Even at the elementary school level, I noticed that the notebooks were mostly empty or had printouts pasted in the composition books. My son and his classmates did not write mathematical equations down and work them out with the teacher on the board; they watched the slides. So when it comes to the homework, he had minimal resources to go back to. Now I was nowhere as good at math as my son is, and I needed to write down every example that the teacher walked us through. If the teacher uses Google Slides, that is fine, but the students need to write down the examples for themselves. As I’ve worked with students, I found that there was difficulty in writing sentences and paragraphs. Getting their ideas on paper and formulating an essay. This is becoming more challenging in the digital age. There needs to be a balance of typing and handwriting. This goes with the need for agendas; having students write helps commit things to memory. The decline of handwriting leads to a decrease in fine motor skills and brain development. This is part of the case of reigning in how much technology should be used in the classroom because of the detrimental effect it has on academic development. The decrease in handwriting and the move to Chromebooks benefited Google and the tech companies more than the students.

A 2019 study found that children read to daily hear nearly 1.5 million more words by age five than those never read to.

Now, let's address reading aloud in schools and at home. There has been a decline in parents reading to their children, teachers reading to students out loud, and students practicing out loud. I particularly want to address this in the classroom, where the ongoing curriculum constraints put a focus on test preparation and reading excerpts instead of actual books. I vividly remember sitting down listening to my teacher and the school librarian reading to my class. Those moments made the books more interesting, and reading became more exciting to me. Reading aloud from the teacher makes the books more pleasurable for elementary school students. For middle school students, it helps model fluency and introduce complex ideas. Building those foundations from elementary through middle school helps build strong literacy skills and courage for students to have through high school and beyond. As a youth director at my church, I realized there was an apprehension among middle and high school students about reading the Bible out loud. Then I realized several students struggled with reading. I did not want to create an environment where students felt ashamed about their literacy skills, but a place where they could read without being judged. An environment where it's ok to mess up, this is the place for it. Schools are and should continue to be the same way. Allow them to read aloud and mess up so they can grow into more proficient readers. Having them read less out loud doesn’t help. The time constraints placed on the teachers and the instruction time by the test-conducive curriculum do not improve literacy for children. Students and teachers need to read out loud. Parents need to be reading to their children at an earlier age. I understand getting caught in the hustle and bustle of everyday life, but when I notice that my youngest son needs to strengthen his reading skills, I need to make adjustments. His literacy skills need to be a priority for me.

---

We need to take a close look at the educational standards that we have in our school systems and ask ourselves, “Are we better off than we were decades ago?” We have improved in many areas, but we have also regressed in others. I believe we can find a healthy balance in the approach towards a quality of education. There is a quote that goes: "We can learn from the past to profit by the present, and from the present, to live better in the future." Let's learn what works and what doesn’t to improve upon what we have, and in turn teach a generation to lead a better tomorrow.